Welcome to class four in the Better Impact Academy!
Join us for class 4 in the Better Impact Academy series to learn about how you collect crucial information from your volunteers and the reporting options available.
Below is a video and some frequently asked questions to set you on your way.
Frequently Asked Questions
What type of information do I need to report on?
Each organization is different! Now is a great time to think about your reporting needs before making decisions on collecting data from volunteers. It is important to make sure that the data you are collecting is important and relevant to your mission. As you work through this transition to a new software, consider what information you may be collecting now that is redundant or extraneous.
Many organizations collect information to inform program outputs, annual impact reports, volunteer recognition events, programs improvement and more.
How can I collect hours from volunteers?
There are several ways. You decide on what the most successful would be. Those options range from allowing volunteers to manually record their hours, use the system to auto log their hours, or have an admin logging the hours manually.
I see there is a timeclock option. What is it?
The timeclock is a way for volunteers to clock in and out for activities they work. You can turn on the mobile timeclock to allow volunteers to clock in and out through the My Impact app, or use the Express Timeclock, that acts as a kiosk, allowing volunteers to clock in at a central portal within your office, using their username only, or their personal QR code.
Are volunteers restricted to clock in during their scheduled shift?
No, volunteers are able to clock in at any time as long as the activity is visible to them and allows hours logging. They are not restricted to clock in on days that they are officially scheduled.
Will Better Impact automatically stop a volunteer’s clock is they forget to clock out?
No, the volunteer will remain clock in until they or an administrator stop their clock. Administrators can easily identify those who have forgotten to clock out from the “Volunteers on the clock” list found under the status update box.
I have hours being auto logged but I need feedback fields to be completed. What do I do?
In situations like this, you will want to have the volunteer manually record their hours and input the required feedback data. If the feedback being provided does not need to be linked to an hours entry, you may consider using the Survey feature instead.
What are raw data reports?
These are reports that you can generate to export information for that type of reporting in raw form, so you can format and manipulate in a program outside of Better Impact.
What does saving a report actually do?
Saving reports helps you save reporting columns that you can generate in the future without having to select them over and over again. Saving a report does not save any data within those fields, its saves your selections within the Columns to Include section of the report interface.
How can I review volunteer hours before they appear within reports?
You can set a permission of ‘can log hours with approval’, so that any hours logged by volunteers will need to be approved before they take effect in their profiles. As you acclimatise to Better Impact you may wish to adopt this step to ensure hours reflect the time being contributed.
I saved a search but cannot access it to communicate with that group of people. Why?
When you save a search, it can only be used within the page it was saved in. The saved searches cannot be used interchangeably. Where you build the search is where you can us it.